Dirty Dozen: Baylor, Texas 1-2 heading into monster Saturday game

Here’s a look at our latest rankings of the 12 FBS programs in the state of Texas after this week’s games.

1. Baylor (10-1, 7-1, next game Saturday vs. Texas) — The Bears earned a gritty victory at TCU despite some big defensive lapses down the stretch but came up with big turnovers when they needed them. Another area of concern was 140 yards in penalties, including three pass interference penalties and an ejection of Ahmad Dixon for targeting for good measure. The Bears will miss Dixon’s leadership and production in the first half against Texas.

2. Texas (8-3, 7-1, next game Saturday @ Baylor) — Root for Oklahoma? Who would ever thought the Longhorns would resort to that, but title hopes make for some strange bedfellows. The Longhorns need a victory over Baylor and an OU victory over Oklahoma State in Bedlam to earn their first BCS bowl berth and Big 12 title since 2009. That scenario would make it difficult to remove Mack Brown as coach.

3. Texas A&M (8-4, 4-4, regular season over) — Johnny Manziel’s repeat Heisman hopes appear to be toast after the Aggies’ late struggles against Missouri. The Aggies produced one yard in their final three drives to finish off a two-game losing streak that likely slots them in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl. The trip to Atlanta is a little later in December than Kevin Sumlin would have liked, even as he pockets a monster pay bump likely boosting him over $4 million per season in his new six-year deal.

4. Texas Tech (7-5, 4-5, regular season over) — The Red Raiders likely are Texas Bowl again as their season of promise became unhinged with a late defensive collapse. The most worrisome trend moving forward was the lack of offensive production against Texas, although Michael Brewer’s late surge could give him a chance to play more in the bowl game.

5. Houston (8-4, 5-3, regular season over) — The Cougars’ season-ending shutout of SMU capped the defensive growth of the team as they flummoxed the Mustangs with five sacks, four turnovers in their first conference shutout since 1989. And the Cougars’ offense rebounded, even without WR Deontay Greenberry, with five scoring drives that lasted three minutes or less.

6. Rice (9-3, 7-1, next game Saturday vs. Marshall in C-USA title game) — A sparkling defensive effort repeatedly turned away Tulane to wrap up the Owls’ C-USA West Division title and send them to the C-USA championship game next week. The Owls limited the Green Wave to 123 total yards for the game and without a first down until the third quarter, sealing the game with two titanic stops late in the fourth quarter. One concern could be the loss of RB Turner Peterson to an apparent knee injury.

7. UTSA (7-5, 6-2, season over) — A five-game winning streak to close the season will provide Larry Coker and the Roadrunners a lot of satisfaction, even if they don’t make a bowl trip and just missed making the C-USA championship game. Eric Soza punctuated his landmark career with a strong finishing performance. The future indeed looks bright, but will Coker be able to keep his staff together if more lucrative offers materialize for them?

8. North Texas (8-4, 6-2, regular season over) — Dan McCarney added another milestone on Saturday, picking up North Texas’ first victory in Tulsa since 1969 to snap a 10-game losing streak there. Brandin Byrd rushed for 251 yards as the Mean Green appear destined to make their first bowl trip since 2004.

9. TCU (4-8, 2-7, season over) — Gary Patterson went ballistic — again — if his reaction to Dixon’s targeting penalty. The post-game rant took away from his team’s strong effort against the Bears earlier. The Horned Frogs played their best football late in the season in narrow losses to bowl teams Kansas State and Baylor with four of their losses by a combined 11 points.

10. SMU (5-6, 4-3, next game Saturday vs. UCF) — The Mustangs still have a chance to become bowl-eligible, but they will have to beat sizzling UCF in a game with BCS ramifications for the Golden Knights. That task looks particularly daunting as Garrett Gilbert’s status is unknown. Without him, the Mustangs were shut out for the first time in 113 games with four turnovers and 10 penalties to boot against Houston.

11. Texas State (6-6, 2-5, season over) — The Bobcats’ bowl hopes were ruined by three losses to finish the season. Injuries to starting quarterback Tyler Jones doomed the Bobcats down the stretch, but senior Duke DeLancellotti had a big game in his first start in the loss at Troy. Coach Dennis Franchione has some work to take his program to a level to compete against the Sun Belt’s best teams.

12. UTEP (2-10, 1-7, season over ) — If UTEP coach Sean Kugler needs any inspiration for the future, he just needed to look at the bowl-bound Middle Tennessee team that beat them 48-17 on Saturday. Only two years ago, the Blue Raiders had the same 2-10 record that UTEP finished 2013 with. MTSU scored on its first six possessions and a Miner offense missing four starters couldn’t keep up. The rebuilding job will be particularly tough in C-USA West with surging programs at UTSA, Rice and North Texas already far in front of them.